Fallen Snow
by Lady Nara
Summary: Naoe and Takaya take a walk in the snow. Set in the same universe as "Crowded," but not exactly a sequel.


**Disclaimer: **Mirage of Blaze is the creation of Kuwabara Mizuna. I make no claim to it and receive no money for fan works.

**Acknowledgements: **Much love to my beta, sabriel75, for working on this even while sick and dealing with holiday craziness!

Fallen Snow

Naoe finished marking the papers on the table before him and capped his pen decisively. Among the document piles scattered over the low-lying surface, he had placed together several papers with names and places scribbled in Haruie's curving scrawl. Relying upon centuries of knowledge regarding the internal workings of the great clans of the Yami Sengoku, he had drawn a complex web of relationships, connecting each noteworthy figure with his greatest allies, enemies, and possible motivating factors. He had circled the ones he thought they could use at this juncture.

Haruie frowned on the sofa directly opposite, while Chiaki raised a skeptical brow next to him. Resisting the urge to rub his temples, he waited for the inevitable arguments.

"It's snowing."

"What?"

Haruie looked up blearily, confused by the non sequitur. Takaya, at her side, ignored her question and the disruption he had caused in the discussion. He continued to gaze out the window, expressionless. Naoe stifled a sigh as he caught sight of Chiaki's face.

It had been a very long day, one not made any easier by Chiaki and Takaya's frequent clashes. The Yami Sengoku was revving up again, as it frequently did after intervals of relative inaction. They could no longer afford to be hobbled by Takaya's ignorance, inexperience and childish disposition, endearing as these could be under less trying circumstances. This fact, unfortunately, did not of itself cause these exasperating attributes of their Lord's current form to disappear.

Naoe could not be as frustrated with Takaya as the others were, considering that he himself had a hand in causing the present difficulty. Even so, he was not altogether unsympathetic to Chiaki's outrage over the seeming stubborn persistence of Kagetora in playing this role. Takaya, for his part, found the entire situation as infuriating as everyone else did, if his defensive temper tantrums were any indication. Naoe could understand the grievances on both sides. This did not work to their or his advantage. It merely doubled his own irritation when they fought.

All of which meant that by this time of night, his own nerves were beginning to fray.

Takaya was correct. There were large flakes swirling outside the window, joining a thin layer of snow coating the sidewalk down below. The street was still black under the street lights.

"Wow, I can't believe we've been so wrapped up in business that we didn't notice," Haruie said into the tense silence, with an uncomfortable laugh. Chiaki's expression as he watched their leader staring out the window was well-suited to the weather.

"Some of us have been," he said, adjusting his glasses.

"Why don't we adjourn for now," Naoe suggested, glancing between them. There was much more that needed to be discussed, and vital decisions that needed to be made, but it was obvious that nothing more would be accomplished while this atmosphere of weary hostility continued. He held up a hand as Chiaki began to object.

"Driving may become difficult if we wait longer. I doubt that anyone wants to be snowed in and have to repeat the other night's experience."

Chiaki shrugged, silently ceding the point; as Naoe had anticipated, but with far greater ease than his character should have allowed. Naoe watched his comrade begin to gather his effects, feeling disquieted. What was it about the imagined complication that had shut him up so quickly? Certainly having to crowd into one small hotel room for the night had been uncomfortable, and certainly he knew that Chiaki had not gotten much rest (they had all known very well, with the way he and Takaya had carried on the next morning), but the other man's reaction still seemed a bit strange. He resolved to pursue this question at a later date and filed it away for the moment.

"I definitely agree," Haruie groaned, levering herself up from the sofa and stretching. "Anyway, I have exams coming up. I need my sleep."

"I don't know how you get away with missing so much school and still manage to keep your grades so high," Takaya remarked, finally turning around. "College students have it so easy."

"Jealous, Kagetora? Maybe if you just applied yourself more…"

"Don't give me that, you slacker college student."

"As if anyone could slack more than you. You'd be right at home in some third-rate party college. That is, if you could ever get in."

The flint in Chiaki's eyes was at odds with the teasing note in his voice. Takaya's eyes narrowed to slits and he took a slow step forward.

"You-"

"Takaya-san, perhaps you would be kind enough to help me carry these files to my car. It is a little distance away and it would be awkward to carry it all myself." Naoe planted himself directly in the way, dumping a box into Takaya's arms.

"But…what…"

"Thank you."

"Wait a minute, aren't you staying at this hotel? Why would you need to put your stuff in your car right now?"

"I need to deliver these to our contact tonight," Naoe lied, steering him to the door.

"And why wouldn't you just park in the hotel parking lot?"

"Hotels are always busy around this time of year. I booked this room last minute." Booting someone else out in the process, Naoe acknowledged privately. A little cash and a confident demeanor could do wonders. It was not the most desirable way to do things, but it had been necessary in this case. Regardless, he knew that Kagetora would not approve.

"The parking lot was packed, so it was simpler to find a place on the street."

It also had made it more difficult for someone to trace his whereabouts, which was of course the real reason for doing so. He really was due to exchange the Mercedes for another of his family's cars. It made him nervous to be seen driving the same vehicle for too long a period.

"I will call both of you tomorrow to set up another meeting."

"Right."

"Of course."

* * *

After having remained stationary for so long, the temperature of Naoe's body was low and the cold air came as an unwelcome shock. Takaya, as usual, had come unprepared. Naoe wondered fleetingly if making provision for bad weather was too much like admitting weakness for Takaya. Watching the boy walking upright into the wind, with his arms held stiffly away from his sides, Naoe squelched his own desire for warmth and rest. Without a word, he stripped off his long trench coat, one arm at a time to keep a grip on his own box of files, and wrapped the coat around Takaya's shoulders. A brush of the hand across the back of Takaya's neck told him what he'd already known; the boy's skin was ice-cold.

Takaya didn't so much as twitch a muscle. He continued to walk jauntily before him, as if Naoe's move was only to be expected. Naoe smiled to himself. Either Haruie or Chiaki would have been upset, if they had been present. The Kagetora they had known had been much more polite, always giving thanks where it was due, careful not to appear to abuse his position over them.

This boy, on the other hand, ordered them about without tact and made no acknowledgement of services rendered. His open arrogance was breathtaking.

Or it would have been, if his motivations hadn't been so plain. Haruie and Chiaki looked at Takaya and could not help but see the man who had dominated their lives for four centuries. Naoe could see the teenage boy who was their Lord and the code of delinquent behavior that demanded such an attitude. In this, there was nothing to distinguish Takaya from the next punk down the block, except for the unconscious force behind his eyes.

All this was easy enough to see and to interpret, though his comrades could never quite reconcile the two images. What was more difficult to explain, and what he would not divulge, was that there was little actual difference between those images. The Kagetora of today could not admit weakness or accept assistance, even when that help was obviously and desperately needed. Naoe knew, however, that the only real change was in his Master's ability to hide that aspect of his personality. Courtesy and god-like distance were a much better cover than this bratty haughtiness.

Not that Takaya didn't pull it off well. Only Naoe would have noticed the self-consciousness of the shift in posture that kept the coat from sliding off without being held or the glance the boy flashed over one shoulder, eyebrows slightly knit.

"Ah."

Naoe was brought out of his reflection by the soft exhalation. A tree and a couple of bushes on a sparse bed of weeds and gravel squatted between the buildings to their left, iced over with snow. Naoe halted at Takaya's shoulder when he stopped in front of the tree. He allowed himself to stand a little closer than usual to block the wind and share what body heat he had. The freezing cold was well worth seeing Takaya swathed in _his_ jacket, smelling of _him_.

Takaya was looking at a spider web suspended in the branches of the small tree, delicately embroidered with a dusting of snowflakes. Shifting the files under one arm, the boy raised his hand and carefully trailed a finger along the edge of the top strand of the web, dislodging white particles. Then he brought back his arm and placed his hand in his pocket, without having caused any damage to the web.

They looked at the lacey web for a moment in silence, caught up in its beauty.

"My earliest memory of snow is from when I was five," Takaya said quietly. "Probably saw it when I was younger, but that's the first time I was really aware of it, I guess."

"I remember how amazed I was by how different everything looked. And how surprised when I realized that snow isn't as soft as it looks."

"It isn't so much that it's not soft. You can't really feel snow, can you," Naoe replied.

Takaya looked at him, surprised. Then he smiled in bemusement.

"No, I guess you can't. It just melts away. All you can feel is cold and then…wetness. Only water."

His smile widened into a grin as he tilted his head back to watch the snow fluttering down over them.

"I was very angry, too. My old man told me that snow tasted like sugar. Probably thought it was funny or cute or something. Of course, I didn't really believe him. But when I saw people on the street catching snow on their tongues, I thought, 'it must be true.'"

Naoe felt warm, watching him. He must have reached the point at which the body interpreted its own numbness as heat.

"We should go on, Takaya-san. You shouldn't be out in the cold for too long. You'll get sick. We're going to need you in the fight ahead."

"I'm not cold."

"You may not feel cold, but your lips are blue."

Naoe began to walk away.

"Once we drop the files off at my car, I will drive you home."

Takaya didn't move.

"I thought you had to go see your contact before the end of the night."

"That's true. Thank you for reminding me," Naoe said calmly. "In that case, I will call you a taxi once we reach my car."

"It's funny, isn't it," Takaya murmured, still gazing upwards. "Why do people always want to taste the snow? They know it only tastes like water. Cold, stale water."

Naoe returned to his side and studied him.

"People often like to take in the things they enjoy with all of their senses. Infants will never rest until they have experienced their toys in every way possible, by looking, touching, and even tasting."

He looked up at the continuous, drifting flakes as well and smiled slightly.

"Maybe people need to believe that snow tastes as sweet as it looks. And believing that actually changes its taste for them, so that they want to open their mouths to it, again and again. Manna from heaven."

"So only gullible people can enjoy the taste of snow?"

"You could think of it as gullibility. Or perhaps it's a matter of faith. It's all about perception, isn't it? Do you believe in 'Santa Claus,' Takaya?"

Takaya made a face.

"I did when I was a little brat. It didn't last long, though. After…after things went bad in my family, I didn't believe anything my parents had told me anymore, especially not anything that I wanted to be true. I wasn't stupid; everything about Santa Claus was so impossible, even a little kid could see that. The only thing that made me believe was the trust I had in my parents when I was too small to know any better and my own stupid wishful thinking."

"Just because something seems impossible or we want it to be true, doesn't mean that it isn't. Aren't we living proof of that?"

"People want ghosts to fight wars in the living world and the dead to take over people's bodies?"

"They want to believe that the soul goes on after death. And even though there's no natural explanation for such a thing, we know that it does, don't we?"

Takaya was silent, looking at the footprints that had been left in the snow when Naoe had walked away.

"There are things that we can know by our own experience and there are things that we can only know by the experience of others. Some of these things are far more important than others. What it really comes down to is whether we judge the authorities who teach us to be trustworthy. And sometimes, it may not even matter if they are. For some things, the important part is the believing, don't you think?"

Naoe reached out and scooped up a handful of snow from a tree branch. He held it up to Takaya with a small smile.

"If I tell you that this snow is sweet, and you take some and it does taste sweet, does it matter whether it would to anyone else, or if it only would to you, because you believe me?"

"It matters," Takaya said softly, down-turned face hidden behind unruly bangs.

Naoe looked at him compassionately, wondering if he was remembering his childhood. It had been a difficult day for Takaya, and allowing him to sink into bad memories would only make it worse. It was time to get him home, where he could be warm and sleep off the stresses of the day.

"It's time to move on," he said, and turned to go.

A hand on his arm stopped him. Looking back, he saw that Takaya was staring up at him with an unreadable expression.

"What's wrong," he started to say, but was interrupted when Takaya transferred his grip from the left arm to the right wrist. Takaya considered the snow still cupped in Naoe's right hand for a moment, his breath escaping his lips in measured puffs of smoky vapor, dragon-like.

Then he tightened his cold hand around the wrist and leaned in to delicately lick some of the snow from Naoe's fingers. He was careful; his tongue did not touch Naoe's skin. Naoe felt only the heat of his breath.

Takaya drew back. His eyes were deep and glowing against the night, looking up at him beneath lashes weighted with white crystals. His blue lips crooked into a smile, at once bitter and wistful.

"Only water," he said.

He walked away. Then he paused, glancing back.

"Are you coming?"

Naoe shivered, long past feeling cold.

"Yes."

_finis_


End file.
